The invention relates generally to measurement devices. More specifically, the invention is a tape measure device (the “tape measure apparatus” or simply the “apparatus”) that provides for the storage and access of information.
The conventional tape measure is used in a virtually limitless of different contexts by a wide variety of different users, both professional and amateur. Carpenters, plumbers, construction workers, electricians, tailors, surveyors, technicians, and numerous other skilled and unskilled laborers make frequent use of some kind of tape measure. Tape measures are also often used by consumers in a domestic context, for a wide variety of handyman tasks and interior design activities.
Despite the proven utility and ubiquitous presence of tape measure devices, such devices do little to assist users after a measurement is taken. The capture of information such as a measurement is useless unless that measurement can be retained and accessed in the future. Furthermore, a particular measurement is without value if the association between the measurement and the dimension being measured is lost or forgotten. To be useful, a measurement must be precise (i.e. accurate) and it must be correctly associated with a particular dimensioning of a particular space, object, or collection of objects. Otherwise, a measurement that is not accurate or is a measurement that is incorrectly associated with a particular dimensioning is worthless at best and misleadingly harmful at worst. A false and incorrect sense of precision can cause a lot of harm before the error is discovered. In many respects, a conventional tape measure device invites all sorts of human error if the particular user is not well organized and exercising self discipline. This is especially true in an intense environment such as a busy construction site or shop floor.
There is a long-standing and yet unmet need in the prior art to facilitate the retention of measurement information so that such information can be accurately accessed in the future. The design of the modern conventional tape measure can be traced back to 1868 when U.S. Pat. No. 79,965 (the '965 patent) issued to Alvin J. Fellows. The '965 patent covered a tape measure that used a spring-click to hold the measuring tape in the desired position. The invention disclosed in the '965 patent made it easier for a user to capture accurate measurements by preventing the movement of the tape while it was being read. Prior to the design embodied in the '965 patent, the user of the tape measure device would have to hold the tape in place while reading the tape in order to prevent the tape from recoiling back into the tape.
The fundamental functionality of a convention tape measure remains remarkably unchanged from the design disclosed in the '965 patent. There have been numerous design improvements to be sure, but little change as to the how the tape measure devices function or as to how users utilize the tape measure devices. Although use of a tape measure often involves taking multiple measurements in a relatively short period of time, the vast majority of tape measures do not provide users with the ability to record those measurements for future reference. This is a significant deficiency as most people cannot remember multiple numbers over an extended period of time. Accurate recall of measurements can be particularly challenging when numbers involve fractions or complex dimensioning. In many contexts, dimensioning must be precise, and even relatively small errors or deviations can preclude satisfactory results and cause significant problems that can require substantial effort to be undone.
Some prior art tape measures designs do attempt to provide users with a limited ability to record measurement information by providing users with a writing surface on the housing of the tape measure. However, such designs have not been widely adopted because they inevitably suffer from one or more significant limitations. Some prior art designs require the use of a special writing utensil instead of a conventional pencil in order to successfully write on the tape measure. Some designs require the use of a special material such as sandpaper to effectively erase the writing surface. Other prior art designs may allow for use of a conventional writing utensil, but the writing is easily smudged rendering any written information unrecoverable by merely rubbing the writing surface accidentally with an article of clothing or a hand. Still other approaches result in a writing surface that is difficult to completely erase, substantially deterring use of the writing surface over the lifespan of the tape measure because of the “ghost” of the prior image remains to cloud future writings.
The prior art approaches to providing a writing surface attached to the housing of tape measure have not been widely accepted, adopted, and used because of significant disadvantages with those approaches. The limited commercial success of such approaches is evidence of material limitations in the prior art. The failure of the prior art to effectively enhance the ability of users to record and access measurement information is striking given the widespread use of tape measure devices.
Prior art tape measure devices without any mechanism for storing measurement information are far more numerous and enjoy substantially more commercial success than tape measure devices attempting to implement some type of information storage component. That is because prior art attempts to address the issue information storage suffer from flaws that render them undesirable in the minds of many users.